HUNTER — A young man was injured Friday after he hiked off the trail at Kaaterskill Falls and tumbled 40 feet, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said Tuesday.

A concerned resident called the DEC at 4:50 p.m. July 6 to report a young man had fallen from Kaaterskill Falls. Forest rangers said the man was hiking with a group when he walked away on his own.

"Disregarding warning signs, (he) hiked off the trail and went down the steep slope below the viewing platform," the DEC said. The man quickly lost his footing on the slope's sharp angle and loose debris and he fell, sliding roughly 40 feet.

"He managed to get down to the bottom of the steep slope and cross the stream to the trail," the DEC said. The man suffered injuries to his upper left leg and left arm.

Assistant Forest Ranger Leslie Green found the man at the bottom of the stairs and started to treat him, as other rangers and local rescuers rushed to the scene.

Rangers packaged the man onto a litter and carried him to the Route 23A trailhead, where they were met by a waiting Hunter emergency medical squad. The man was then driven to Columbia Memorial hospital.

Several hikers have been injured and four have died at the Greene County waterfall in the last four years. The site is home to steep cliffs and slippery rocks, and the state spent $800,000 last year on safety improvements.

The most recent work includes a new, 200-foot cable hand rail on the trail leading to the middle pool of the two-stage waterfall on Kaaterskill Creek, as well as improvements to the falls trail down to the middle pool, and to a one-half-mile section of trail leading to the Kaaterskill trail system.

A new foot trail completed last year leads from the end of the marked Kaaterskill Falls trail at the base of the falls up to the middle pool of the falls, which included installation of a new stone staircase. The 200-step staircase was designed to blend in with the natural stone of the trail.